When my son was little I found and created all sorts of work to keep the lights on and buy myself time to write. I house-sat, child-sat, pet-sat. Summertimes, for many years, I hosted camps for kids. Initially these sessions were writing focused. Campers wrote and performed skits, made magazines, and composed poetry.
As a retired teacher and a parent of 4, I must add my “Hell, yes”. I could go on for chapters about my opinions on this topic. Some of my favorite memories in the classroom included fabulous fashion show presentations of imagined characters the students would bring to life. Most of the chaos of creation was handled at home because of logistics, though I later worked at The Tinkering School where there were hands on experiences. A side note- I bought a couple of your pandemic clay creations and they are homes for succulents on my kitchen counter.
I had always thought of myself as a "writer," albeit an unproductive one. Then at the age of 58, I went to a beach retreat because it was inexpensive and someone I knew was the chef, and was introduced to Soul Collage, which is basically what it sounds like. It is using found images from magazines to create cards somewhat based on archetypes. More importantly, it was GLUE . . . SCISSORS . . . PAPER!!!! I ended up taking a trip to California the next year to become a Soul Collage Facilitator. And then I bought a fancy camera in 2019. And I took an online photography class . . . all of this is to say it took me almost 60 years to realize I was a visual artist and more importantly, a visual thinker. Duh! Lol. That explained a lot.
Love this. As I'm kicking around ideas for my eventual microschool (i.e. hack/homeschooling my kids and possibly a handful of others), I'm constantly weighing how to balance academic skill-building with unstructured creative freedom. I think they're both super important, though the exact dosage of each needs to vary by kid, and I don't think they need to overlap as much as some people want to see (e.g. teaching music only to help kids with math, or trying to make concrete writing skills more fun than functional). It's okay for work to be work and play to be play, and not everything has to be both, though that can also be fine sometimes...
As a grandma of girls, I have always encouraged art, stories and make believe. As they have gotten older, it has been more of a challenge. I'm grateful that the school they attended still offer creative classes.
Thank you for sharing Temple Grandin's new book. I love her!
My daughter and a friend went to Fashion Camp together! I remember feeling vaguely guilty that I wasn’t providing better support at home for hands-on projects (I can sew). I most clearly remember how much they enjoyed the fashion show & the music from Henry & friends.
As a retired teacher and a parent of 4, I must add my “Hell, yes”. I could go on for chapters about my opinions on this topic. Some of my favorite memories in the classroom included fabulous fashion show presentations of imagined characters the students would bring to life. Most of the chaos of creation was handled at home because of logistics, though I later worked at The Tinkering School where there were hands on experiences. A side note- I bought a couple of your pandemic clay creations and they are homes for succulents on my kitchen counter.
I had always thought of myself as a "writer," albeit an unproductive one. Then at the age of 58, I went to a beach retreat because it was inexpensive and someone I knew was the chef, and was introduced to Soul Collage, which is basically what it sounds like. It is using found images from magazines to create cards somewhat based on archetypes. More importantly, it was GLUE . . . SCISSORS . . . PAPER!!!! I ended up taking a trip to California the next year to become a Soul Collage Facilitator. And then I bought a fancy camera in 2019. And I took an online photography class . . . all of this is to say it took me almost 60 years to realize I was a visual artist and more importantly, a visual thinker. Duh! Lol. That explained a lot.
Love this. As I'm kicking around ideas for my eventual microschool (i.e. hack/homeschooling my kids and possibly a handful of others), I'm constantly weighing how to balance academic skill-building with unstructured creative freedom. I think they're both super important, though the exact dosage of each needs to vary by kid, and I don't think they need to overlap as much as some people want to see (e.g. teaching music only to help kids with math, or trying to make concrete writing skills more fun than functional). It's okay for work to be work and play to be play, and not everything has to be both, though that can also be fine sometimes...
As a grandma of girls, I have always encouraged art, stories and make believe. As they have gotten older, it has been more of a challenge. I'm grateful that the school they attended still offer creative classes.
Thank you for sharing Temple Grandin's new book. I love her!
My daughter and a friend went to Fashion Camp together! I remember feeling vaguely guilty that I wasn’t providing better support at home for hands-on projects (I can sew). I most clearly remember how much they enjoyed the fashion show & the music from Henry & friends.